If you saw the Microsoft press conference and Remedy's brief demo of Quantum Break, you saw some fantastic action, very cool visual effects during the game's stutter moments, and what hero Jack Joyce's time manipulation powers. What you probably didn't see was a clever nod to Remedy's last big hit.

At the very end of the behind closed doors demo, which we dove into yesterday, we see Jack facing the camera. I caught a glimpse of something he was wearing that made me raise an eyebrow.

You can't read the entire shirt, but you can make out the word "night." I asked Remedy if it happened to say "Night Springs," the fictional Twilight Zone-like show from Alan Wake.

Remedy confirmed the subtle nod, pointing out that it isn't the first time their titles have crossed over. "You saw Max Payne in Alan Wake," says Remedy head of franchise development Oskari "Ozz" Häkkinen. "Sam [Lake, Remedy creative director] has some ideas for our games in a bigger Remedy Universe."

We don't know if we'll see Max Payne, Lake, or Alan Wake mentioned in greater depth in Quantum Break. Maybe Night Springs isn't an in-game concept, but the meta-narrative that holds all of Remedy's wildly different concepts together. And just the idea that hardboiled cop Max Payne, troubled author Alan Wake, and time-bending Jack Joyce live in a shared world has us pretty excited.